Chapter 182
Lu Chuan watched the Seed of Desire invading his palm. After observing long enough, he finally activated the imprint Cang Jiu had left him, which erased the roots at once.
Since it was power from the God of Desire, Cang Jiu’s imprint completely suppressed the seed.
After some thought, Lu Chuan stored the seed away in his system space. Last time, Cang Jiu had given him an entire world of golden dragons; if he could get out of here safely, this seed could be a proper return gift.
With the seed gone, the cave lost its sinister air and looked just like any ordinary cavern.
[Host, shall we leave now?] #888 asked.
As long as they left, it could reboot its main program and stop being stuck in this limited backup mode.
“No, not yet.” Lu Chuan shook his head. “That damned rat is waiting outside. If I step out too soon, it’ll strike immediately. No need to risk it. Better to stay here a while. Honestly, I haven’t slept well since entering this Human Forbidden Zone copy. At least in here, I can rest in peace.”
He wasn’t lying.
Ever since coming into this instance, Lu Chuan’s sleep had been uneasy. He never knew if the timeline would be the same when he woke, and several times, crossing timelines had thrown him into dangerous situations. Sleeping soundly outside was impossible.
But in this cave? No one could enter. He had food and water stored in his system space, enough to sustain him.
So why rush to leave?
And aside from the Seed of Desire, who knew what else this cave might hold? It was worth investigating further.
With that in mind, Lu Chuan settled down. He even tidied the cave, tossing out the clutter, laying down a golden-thread carpet, and setting up gilded tables and chairs. In no time, the ordinary cave looked like a legendary treasure vault.
Pouring himself tea, nibbling on snacks, he sighed in satisfaction. “Now this is living. What was I eating before? Just yellow mush—disgusting, tasteless. I didn’t come into this instance to diet.”
888 simply gave a short acknowledgement and said no more.
Sure enough, backup mode was dull. If it were the upgraded version, it would already be entertaining him with chatter and gossip.
Lu Chuan sighed regretfully. Well, you can’t have everything.
If life gets too good, Heaven itself will get jealous.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Infinite World…
Number 6 had just finished wiping out a cult altar. All the evil god’s followers were slaughtered, but the god itself never descended. Clearly, compared to risking descent only to be devoured by Number 6, abandoning the cultists was more worthwhile.
During the divine war, Number 6 had killed too savagely, consuming too many gods. Now, whenever gods saw him, they fled outright, giving him no chance at all.
Unable to hunt gods directly, he could only scavenge for remnants of their presence to sustain himself.
Even as one of the master-ranked Executors, Number 6 could not resist the power of the God of Time, and so he too was forced into timeline jumps. In some of these, he found Wen Renxu; in others, not at all. Initially, Number 6’s target had been Lu Chuan, but his prolonged clashes with Wen Renxu made him realize that if he could push Wen Renxu into mutation, devouring him would be just as rewarding. Since Lu Chuan couldn’t be located, he shifted his sights. Devouring Wen Renxu might eventually lead him back to Lu Chuan across timelines.
But as he consumed more and more gods, Number 6’s sanity fluctuated wildly.
Sometimes, after eating a god, strange visions appeared in his mind.
He felt like he understood something—but couldn’t articulate it.
What he did know was: the more gods he ate, the more memories surfaced. His body itself seemed infused with traces of divine power, likely from overconsumption.
In the Infinite Worlds, Executors usually acted in pairs, and even when encountering gods, they couldn’t devour freely without the Main God System’s orders. After a god was eaten, the system recalculated their merit points, using those points to stabilize their sanity.
However, in this dungeon, the functions of the Main God System were restricted to the bare minimum, reduced to little more than passive hints. Its previous restraints on Executors had also been greatly weakened, which gave Number 6 enormous freedom—enough to let him run rampant in this world.
“Most of the gods are in slumber and won’t be awakening anytime soon. At this point in time, there’s only one powerful god still lingering here.” If Lu Chuan were standing in front of Number 6 right now, he might not even recognize that this gloomy, sinister figure was the same pitch-black creature he had once met.
The first time he saw Number 6, the man resembled nothing more than a mindless beast—powerful, driven entirely by appetite. Rather than a person, he was more like a blade that had gained self-awareness.
But now, Number 6 carried his own emotions, his own goals. Even his movements were more human-like—though he didn’t look easy to deal with.
Since he couldn’t find Lu Chuan or Wen Renxu, Number 6 had turned his gaze to the other gods.
The Father of Nature suddenly shivered.
He could sense that something was watching him, but whenever he tried to probe it, he found nothing.
In this world, there were very few who could pose any real threat to him. A little deduction was all it took to know exactly who it was. Even so, the Father of Nature had no intention of fleeing just yet. Lu Chuan had already entered that place; perhaps he would uncover the secrets of this world. If the Father of Nature ran now, he would never get such a chance again.
It was worth the gamble!
From the first flicker of danger to actually meeting Number 6, only three days had passed.
In less than three days, Number 6 had locked onto the Father of Nature’s position and found him.
It couldn’t be helped—in this world, with the stronger gods all asleep, the Father of Nature’s divine aura stood out like a glaring lightbulb among a field of candles. Locating him was all too easy.
“You… you carry a divine aura much like ours.” The Father of Nature looked at Number 6 in puzzlement. He swore he sensed the presence of gods he knew clinging to this man. Could devouring enough gods turn someone into a god? What a joke—he had never heard of such a thing.
The growth of a god was an exacting process.
Unless… unless the man had been a god from the very beginning, only stripped of his divinity for some reason. Now, having consumed too many gods, that buried essence had been forced awake. His divine power outweighed the rest, and so his original godhood was slowly resurfacing.
“You must have been like me—once a god yourself. Since you too are a god, you shouldn’t be fighting me.” The Father of Nature said earnestly, “I believe you’ve noticed it as well—there’s something very wrong with this world. If we work together and uncover its secrets, we could leave this place. Then, we could grow far stronger.”
Number 6 wasn’t interested in the chatter—he struck immediately.
“Don’t you want to know why your body is changing so much?” The Father of Nature said hurriedly as he dodged, “You’ve seen it yourself—there are no other High Gods left in this world. Only I can help you. If you insist on devouring me, I can always abandon this body and flee. Then who else would you have left to eat?”
Somehow, one of his words struck a chord. Number 6’s attacks slowed.
“Why should I believe you can help me?”
“I’ve already sent people to locate the weakest point of this world,” the Father of Nature replied sincerely. “Between him and you, I believe you. Your strength is far greater than his. If I tell you where, you’ll see—your enemy is not me.”
He had betrayed Lu Chuan once before. He wasn’t going to hesitate at betraying him a second time.
The Father of Nature had never trusted Lu Chuan, nor had Lu Chuan trusted him. Otherwise, Lu Chuan would not have locked away the divine seeds he had been given, saving them to use only after leaving this dungeon—when the Main God System’s restraints would be active again, and the Father of Nature would be powerless to stir trouble.
“You’re coming with me,” Number 6 said coldly. “The moment you lie, I’ll devour you on the spot.”
Meanwhile, Starry Ming and his team were desperately scouring records for traces of Lu Chuan and Wen Renxu.
The chronicles recounted their glorious deeds and supposed ends—but nowhere did they mention the discovery of their corpses.
With their abilities, the odds of death were slim.
Starry Ming felt there must be something he was overlooking.
“Boss, we found the diary of the Dark Night Investigation Corps. It seems to contain some useful information.” His teammates handed him the worn notebook.
He leafed through it quickly, searching for clues.
At last, one entry caught his eye: ‘Lord Lu discovered a password box left behind by Lord Wen, but he could never open it. Lord Lu left with the box, and was never seen again.’
A password box?
Starry Ming issued his order at once: “If they left behind a box, they would never hide it outside this city. Search the city top to bottom. Dig three feet underground if you must—find that box.”
If they found it, they might finally learn what the two had really gone through.
This dungeon could be cleared—of that, he was certain.
